FL, Feds file lawsuits involving voter purge

There's a showdown between the state of Florida and the federal government, all triggered by an nbc-2 investigation into voter fraud.

The U.S. Justice Department announced this week it plans to sue Florida for its efforts to purge thousands of potential non-citizen voters registered in the state.

The federal government claims the purge is illegal because it's too close to the august primary and information the state is using to purge voters is flawed.

Democrats accuse Governor Rick Scott of leading the voter purge for political reasons.

"All they want to do is send a message that to dissuade and discourage voter participation because they'd understand that the maximum turnout, it's unlikely their candidate wins," said Rod Smith, Florida Democratic Party Chairman.

Florida now plans to sue the Department of Homeland Security for blocking access to a federal citizenship verification system.

"I've spoken to many people and every time I speak to them, they tell me ‘please do not let my vote be neutralized by a noncitizen voting,' and so that's my job. It's not a republican job. It's not a Democrat job. It's the job of the secretary of state," said Ken Detzner, Florida's Secretary of State.

U.S. Attorney General Eric holder says even that federal system isn't full proof.

"That database, to my understand is a DHS database, does not contain on its rolls within that database, people who were born in the united states and that database could be flawed in the exclusion who are native-born American," Holder told a recent committee.

In February, the NBC2 Investigators first exposed non-citizens registered to vote in Lee and Collier counties after reviewing juror excusal information.

The state is now looking into 180,000 voters, who Governor Rick Scott says could cast ballots in the next election.

"They can't. That's not right. My job is to enforce the law of the land. secretary of state's office did their job" Scott told us last week.

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